Teamwork makes the dream work
Sometimes a job just needs 25+ reserve team members.
Last week we welcomed WWT Washington staff and volunteers for two days of hard graft – and a lot of fun as well.
We completed work that would have taken our 5 reserve staff and volunteer team weeks in mere hours. These jobs ranged from rush cutting and raking, hide cleaning, path maintenance and much more.
Gill, centre manager at WWT Washington, said:
Quite some time ago, some of the Caerlaverock team came to Washington to help us out on our reserve and finally, we got to repay the favour. Except it wasn’t really a favour. It was an amazing time for the Washington gang! We got to visit a site which is so amazing and has always been very close to our hearts, both as colleagues and when many of us have visited over the years outside of work. We had such a warm welcome from the Caerlaverock folk and learnt so much from them during our two days there. We took many photos which I am collating into a “lush stuff I will steal from them” document. We obviously loved seeing the whooper swans and attending the swan talk and the barnacle geese were just amazing. These are spectacles we don’t get at Washington so I’ll confess to feeling slightly envious. We were also treated to amazing close up views of a male hen harrier, peregrine and incredibly laid-back deer.
Dave and the team have kindly offered to come and help us out again later in the year so we’re quite excitedly planning what we can ask them to do here. I particularly love the way that they create beautiful features from the willows and hedges on site so I’d love them to create a little bit of Caerlaverock at Washington as part of that trip.
Dave, centre and reserve manager at WWT Caerlaverock, said:
Much of what makes WWT special are the people that work here. We have a great team at Caerlaverock but we don’t get out much as it’s a long way anywhere. So to get a posse from the famed Washington descending on Caerlaverock was a bit like Christmas coming early. What a great bunch, volunteers and staff, it was a pleasure showing off our fab site to them. But it wasn’t just a jolly – they worked SO hard to help us get Caerlaverock looking its best and asked SO many interesting questions about all the aspects of the reserve. Some of the team even got up before dawn to walk out to the Saltcot Merse Observatory and watch the geese coming in onto the reserve first thing – that is dedication to the cause. At the end of the two days a huge list of tasks were finished and they left Caerlaverock looking better than when they arrived, but as ever there was more to the event than just a job list – stories were exchanged, connections made, promises made and ideas pinched – that all mean that this isn’t just a one off.
